I started a thread a while ago called "My GPO Rotary Telephone Collection" that thread is getting a bit long now so i thought I would start a new one for anyone of interest. I thought I would start it off with this.

Here is my 1983 serviced in 86 British Telecom Special Range Mickey Mouse telephone, this one is in fantastic condition, unlike my Snoopy And Woodstock phone, this one is pushbutton and has a bell ringer (earlier styles of these had a Trimphone ringer and a rotary dial).
Although it is Pushbutton it is still pulse dial and not touchtone, exchange didn't really support digital touchtones until the late 80s in the UK.

Here he is anyway, a BT classic!

There he is next to Snoopy (earlier type, earlier Mickey's would of had a dial 78-82 ish)

telephones we used to put change in? Yours were inside of red wooden booths. Ours were in ugly aluminum ones.
Amazing how some things change. I'll be age 57 this March. I'm still learning every day.
For some things, no matter how much they change, they can remain the same.
Other things go back the way they were before.
AT&T has submitted a bid to buy Time Warner communications.
In 1982, our government broke up the old AT&T telephone system. The idea was to increase competition and lower consumer costs while adding more choices. It added new ipo shares to the stock market for sure. Now the old AT&T stock was very healthy.
Choices are good, but I've never had a lower phone bill since 1982 either.
Let me see here, do I want a left Twix, or a right Twix candy bar today?
Maybe neither. I'm trying to be objective. Bear with it. (LoL)
I understand and have learned that technology to project a cell phone, video, and multiple computer screens in front of our eyes in mid air has been developed.
How amazing is that? Full accessable "MEDIA" at all times.
More new ipo shares? A boost to your 401K and portfolio? Why not?
You know, some say we are widely divided today. It's almost 50/50, except in very
extreme locales.
Some are concerned about huge debt, others about progress, others about trade, others about race, other about illegals. Yet, we persevere, and most of us have had a prosperous decade. Certainly better than the previous decade here in the USA.
Maybe just maybe, we can put all of our new technology to use for the more common
good, both at home and abroad.
Fear not, forge ahead, progress!
The next four years may be good, or may not be. We shall see. We can always select another representative if the need arises. We are constant, and yet variable.
It has little to do with MEDIA, a bit to do with ego, and a great deal to do with money. Follow the money. We all chase it for the optimal legal tender.

GPO telephone kiosks (booths) were of cast iron, except for the very earliest (indoor) types, and are/were properly referred to as 'Public Call Offices'. I'm sure the Internet has many photographs of the various types. Since the turn of the century BT has been removing as many of them as legally possible from our landscape, because VERY few of them make a profit, and they have a good resale value for a company which (like most others these days) is always on the lookout for a short term gain. Many of these have been bought by individuals to use as garden ornaments or shower cubicles (though they are rather tall (and heavy!!) for installation in the average UK home). Many rural villages applied to their local council to get 'listed building' status for their kiosk, thereby preventing BT from removing it, instead paying the 'scrap price' for it and keeping it 'in situ', minus the actual telephone instrument, of course. Many of these have now acquired repute as 'the World's smallest Art Gallery' or 'the World's smallest Museum', etc. I am sure that every UK member here (or their parents, in the case of the Junior members) can think of at least two or three sites where there 'used to be a 'phone box' which has long since gone.

The train station in my city was restored a few years ago and they kept a lot of the original 1920s vintage fixtures to convey a feeling of stepping back in time, including a vintage Southern Railroad schedule board and the old wooden telephone booths, sans telephones. They now have stickers on the windows identifying them as cell phone booths, where one can retreat for a private phone conversation.

I was offered one of those old-school wall phones with the oak case and the crank handle. It had actually been made to work with modern phone lines somehow, but retained its original guts for the most part (I looked inside). I think they wanted either $75 or $100...can't remember. I was still moving around then a lot and the prospect of another bulky item to schlep was not in the cards.

Now they just gut them and put electronics inside so they work, or they're just fake retro. I have no idea what the original phones are worth now?

The Mickey phone pictured is awesome! My little grandson would LOVE that phone.